Deputy Mayor Torres‑Springer, Housing, Economic Development and Workforce: Good morning, everyone. My name is Maria Torres‑Springer. I'm the deputy mayor for Housing, Economic Development and Workforce, and we are so incredibly pleased to be here today on what I believe and what we all believe is a really historic moment in our city.
Now, many of you might know that four women currently serve as deputy mayors alongside a first deputy mayor, a chief of staff, a chief advisor, all of whom are women and all of us are women of color. And we have dozens more women leading agencies and offices in New York City. Many of them are right behind me. What a powerful sisterhood, a round of applause, please.
And I just want to say to all of you that all of your journeys, your achievements, and your very presence in this building, in this rotunda are a perfect illustration of the progress that we have made since the founding of our city 400 years ago. We've come a long way, ladies. Congratulations.
And all of this is because we have a mayor who simply gets it. And so without further delay, to share more about Women Forward NYC, I'd like to introduce the 110th mayor of New York City, but more importantly, the son of Ms. Dorothy Mae Streeter‑Adams, Mayor Eric Adams.
Mayor Eric Adams: Thank you so much, Deputy Mayor Maria Torres‑Springer, and just the entire team that's here. There's this amazing experiment that is taking place right now: not only do we have to run a city of this level of complexity as New York, but we have a duality here that I'm very much focused on every day.
We have to really dismantle the belief and rumor that, number one, a woman cannot lead in complex environments such as Deputy Mayor Meera Joshi as she leads with our infrastructure, and what Deputy Mayor Williams‑Isom is doing in probably one of the most challenging humanitarian crises I know that this region has ever witnessed but probably of a global shift of human beings moving across the globe and as she's carrying that out every day.
And what our first deputy mayor is doing with the completeness of all of our agencies, and what my chief advisor is doing in just really managing all of these different entities as we deal with these complex situations. So, I could go on and on and on from chief of staff to our housing policies that we're seeing under Deputy Mayor Maria Torres‑Springer.
So, this is just a moment where we, in two years — two years — we have dismantled the myth and belief that not only could women lead, but people of color can lead. This is the most important city on the globe. And we all know it, we've heard it for years. And you know, we hear some of the little buzzwords, you know maybe y'all can't manage this, and maybe y'all's not good enough to do this. We know those are coded language. We got it.
But no one could dispel the fact, in two years. People thought it was going to take us four years, we came in here, we said we don't know what they're talking about it's going to take four years. We're going to get this done.
And we are doing it every day. But you can't do it if you're not going to deal with the pink elephant in the room that people want to ignore. We have not been a user‑friendly city, country or globe to women. No matter where I go across the globe, I see the same common denominator of treating women as second‑class citizens and don't believe they can lead, but also don't believe we need to deal with the individuality of the needs of women.
And we have demonized the things that women need to make sure that they can carry out the roles they do. We address all the things that men need, but we don't want to deal with the real common ground that women need and the uniqueness and the individual part of it.
And that's why we're here today. We think it's so important that this builds on our agenda of focusing on public safety, focusing on people and making our city more livable for everyone and making sure that we have safe spaces for people to be in our city. This is all part of that.
So, today, we are making an important announcement for the MVPs of our city — the Most Valuable People — and that's the women that in our city to say that we see you, we hear you, we're going to make sure that we can continue the role that we're playing.
And this is on behalf of mom. You know, was betrayed by this city as she raised the six of us. And we are not going to ensure that the Dorothy Mae Adams‑Streeter that's out there right now is going to be betrayed again. It stops with this administration.
New York City leads the nation in many ways; and today, we're taking steps to become a leader on genuine equity with the ambitious goal of becoming the most women-forward city in America.
Yesterday, in our State of the City we announced our Women Forward NYC Action Plan that will put us on a clear and comprehensive plan to address gender inequities. And it didn't start here. Ingrid reminds folks all the time when they did the analysis of who paid women the salary that they deserve, when I was borough president, I think I led by 14 percent by every other city agency. So, this did not just start. I am not new to this, I'm true to this, and I'm committed every day.
Today, as our first announcement out of the gate, I wanted to reveal the details of this plan so you can learn about one of our top priorities. We're investing more than $43 million to address the needs of all women in our city, including transgender and gender non‑conforming people. Our plan is holistic. Our plan — great to have our assemblywoman, we missed you yesterday, you were in Albany — Our plan is holistic. We want to make sure that women are safe in our city, that they receive the healthcare that meets their specific needs and that they are able to succeed economically.
Our plan reduces gender disparities by connecting women of all ages to professional development and higher paying jobs. It removes… Come on, judge. It removes barriers to sexual, reproductive and chronic healthcare. It reduces domestic and gender‑based violence against women, and it provides wraparound holistic housing services with a focus on formerly incarcerated women and domestic gender‑based violence survivors.
More than three dozen programs are laid out in this action plan that is funded with both city dollars and a large cross-sector collaboration of private and public partners, academic institutions and federal grants. Some of the programs include expanding career opportunity programs for women in NYCHA to start their own businesses in the food and childcare sector; New York City service developing career and college prep for young women, specifically women of color; funding financial literacy training which is always a great idea, a $10 bank account for girls living in the New York City Department of Homeless Services shelters through the Girl Scouts of Greater New York; launching new mental health support for pre and post‑natal women in neighborhoods with high rates of maternal and infant mortality, something that Dr. Vasan fully understands. We are members of the men who gets it club, and this is something that we are focused on.
Increasing funding for the abortion access hub hotline and medication abortion services operated by the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene; releasing our first of its kind Women's Health Report, restarting the Girl Talk, a mentoring program for young girls with NYPD's female officers. Commissioner Holmes was a leader in this area and I really want to thank her. I don't know if she's here. Good job, commissioner.
And the most important aspect of this is that the plan was developed by women that are part of this administration and women they have partnered with throughout the entire city. So, it is developed, created and implemented by the women and the leadership here.
So, the reality is when women in our city thrive and succeed, we all thrive and succeed. Families thrive and succeed. It is an important part of the component that has often been missed on how we move our city forward and has not been part of the conversation. The backbone of this administration and the city and our nation and the globe is really lied in how well we treat the women. That is how we're going to be determining our success.
And we have made it clear in this administration… Who would have thought the vision of Dorothy Mae Adams‑Streeter would see her son be a partner in the women of this administration to ensure that women across the city are going to receive the support that… The clarion call to do the right thing for the woman of our city. And I think it's going to cascade throughout our entire nation and throughout the entire globe. It's going to start here in New York City, the greatest city on the globe. Thank you very much.
Deputy Mayor Torres‑Springer:
Thank you so much, Mayor Adams. We have really benefited from your unwavering vision and support in making sure that we're not just invited to the table, but that we, I don't know, make the table, make all the decisions at the table. That's right, all of it, all of it. Because we all know that we don't always have unwavering support in the workplace.
Today in the United States, women comprise the majority of the college educated workforce. Women are in the workforce in larger numbers than ever before and lead nearly half of the businesses here based in New York City. So, we've made great decisions. progress, but there is still so much more work to do. And we know this not just because of the data, but from our very own lived experiences, that there are still long standing disparities in education, health, social services and in safety.
And these disparities were, of course, exacerbated by the Covid‑19 pandemic, and too many of them continue to create roadblocks for women's economic advancement and well‑being. The statistics are staggering. These are the statistics that we are trying to really change the trajectory of.
They include the fact that women today still earn only 86 cents for every dollar that men earn, and they are underrepresented in the highest‑wage jobs but overrepresented in the lowest‑paid ones. Outside of the workplace, Black women, for instance, are four times more likely to die of pregnancy associated causes than white women.
These are systemic problems, and we know that we can't address them alone. And that's why the work that the mayor mentioned has been one where we've called in not just the leaders of agencies but I'm really so happy that we spoke to many of your staff, many of the incredible women leaders who will soon be on these steps and ask them for their suggestions on which programs to start, which programs to scale.
And we talked to partners from the philanthropic sector, the not‑for‑profit sector, the business sector, academia, to make sure that as we built Women Forward NYC that it wasn't just going to be a list of programs but it was really going to be the foundation for how we might build the capacity to do this work even more effectively across all sectors in the future.
Now, the 42 initiatives that the mayor mentioned, they represent more than $40 million in investments across different sectors and they will address those disparities in gender equity and ensure real quality of services for New Yorkers.
Now, I want to say that while I am speaking on behalf of some of my colleagues this morning, we couldn't do this work without the leadership of individual deputy mayors, their ideas, their partnership and their brilliance.
And so I just want to specifically call out my colleagues here. Deputy Mayor Meera Joshi for all of her healthy skepticism which made sure that everything that we announced today are real actions benefiting real New Yorkers. So, thank you, Meera.
I want to thank Deputy Mayor Ana Almanzar. So much of the leadership that she has brought to this building isn't just one that is rooted in experience and compassion, but it's been a relentless drive to make sure that as we do this work, we focus in particular on young people, girls of color in particular. And so thank you for the work that you have done.
And then there's, of course, my hero. When I grow up, I would like to be Deputy Mayor Anne Williams‑Isom for everything that she does in any given day. But so much of what we're announcing today is rooted in her vision and the mayor's vision for really being a leader in this country in terms of women's health. So, thank you, Anne, for inspiration every single day.
And of course our first deputy mayor, Sheena Wright, who really insists that we don't don't work in silos. Now, we could have done a women's agenda on economic security or a women's agenda on health, right? Many administrations have done that. We did the research, other cities do that.
But that wasn't good enough for our first deputy mayor, it wasn't good enough for our mayor. The work is to not have this siloed because the work of promoting the lives and well‑being of women and girls is not the work of one person or one leader or one agency, it is all of our work. So, thank you for that inspiration.
And of course, our chief of staff Camille Joseph Varlack and our chief advisor Ingrid Lewis‑Martin who every day make sure that we are on task, on point, moving the ball forward. And I appreciate all of your leadership and friendship, and I know that generations, really generations of New Yorkers, women and girls, will benefit because you are in the seats and roles that you are in. So, thank you. Thank you.
I would, before I introduced two amazing speakers, I did just want to note that as we are doing this work, Women Forward NYC, we're doing this because we know that while there are many opportunities that have opened up for women, this isn't just about enriching our own lives or even the lives of individual women.
We all know that this is the type of work that enriches the life of the city. This is why we are here. This is why we have built this foundation, because we know that our city will benefit when every girl can reach her full potential, when every woman can reach her full potential in this city. And that's why we have come together and will continue to push forward.
And again, to all of the women gathered here today, this is not new, this work is not new to you. You in this room, you have removed many obstacles that have existed. You have opened doors as the women before you have opened. And what I'm so excited about is that we're here to write the next great chapter of this work for our neighbors across the five boroughs. And so, thanks to all of you again. All right.
We have two amazing speakers who I think will really bring to life what this work really means for individual women in our city. And so our first speaker is Nurse Leigh Bearden who is a former labor and delivery nurse from the private sector who is now working with this amazing program, DOHMH's Nurse Family Partnership in the Brooklyn Division. She's been doing that since 2021, and we're so happy to have you. Welcome, Nurse Leigh.
Leigh Bearden: Hi. I'm Leigh Bearden. I am a nurse with DOHMH's Nurse Family Partnership and program. And I get the honor and privilege to work with women and guide them through this incredible journey that they go through as they become moms. It's such a difficult time for women as they go through these extreme identity changes as they enter motherhood, and so I'm so fortunate that I'm in a role where I get to support them.
Motherhood isn't easy. It's joyful but it can be tiring and exhausting at times. So, as an NFP nurse I get to support women to become the best moms that they can be, whether that's a listening ear, whether that's connecting them to resources. And we also work with our moms to help them accomplish their heart's desire. So, I love, I love my job and I get to work with amazing moms like Mariana, so I’ll let her say a few words.
Mariana Henriquez: Hi, my name is Mariana. Working with Leigh this time for me has been so important because I don't have my family here in New York, so I didn't know anything about being pregnant or taking care of a baby. I didn't have nobody to ask questions about my symptoms.
So, when I found Leigh in my life, it was like a light in this journey. I can text her, I can call her. She came home and she explained everything to me. So, I have all this information, and for me is very important. I'm so glad to live in New York. I'm so glad for this program, because I don't feel lonely anymore. So, thank you so much.
Deputy Mayor Torres‑Springer: Thank you so much, Mariana. This is what makes the work really fulfilling. We are here for you and your success and your well‑being motivates I know the actions of everyone gathered here today.
Before we do on topics, I think I have just two more things I want to say. First, more details about these initiatives as well as a complete list of critical resources for women can now be found on women.nyc. So, really encourage the women of our city, the girls of our city, to check out that site for more information and for more connections.
And then finally, I want to give a public shout out to someone on my team who's done extraordinary work to build this all together. And I would like you to join me in giving her a round of applause,. because she's been an amazing leader in really shepherding all of this work, Ms. Sarah Mallory.
Mayor Adams: Katie?
Question: I wanted to ask you… Women power. Do you want to just give more details, because I know around the same time last year you announced a really broad health initiative for women's health. I know this encompasses a lot more than that, so just the monetary details, how many agencies it goes over.
You know, I checked women.nyc and I don't know if it's been up there yet, but just more details on, I guess what the ultimate goal is. I don't know if you or the…
Mayor Adams: I'll let DM Maria Torres‑Springer go into it. But this is a continuation. What we did last year, this is all part of it. As you see, we held a summit, a health summit with government and private entities. So, this is the continuation that is showing that this was not a one and done. We continue to grow, we continue to expand, and that is the whole purpose of this. But DM, do you want to go?
Deputy Mayor Torres‑Springer: Of course. Thank you, Katie. So, as the mayor mentioned, this is both a building on work that is already happening, but also creating the infrastructure so that it never is a one and done.
This has been put together with dozens of agencies. So the 42, and many of them are here today. The 42 different initiatives representing $40 million run the gamut but they focus on those four pillars that we described earlier: economic security is one of them; maternal health is another; stable housing; and, public safety.
The $40 million represents both city funds, federal funds and private funds, and let me just give you the breakout because I think it's important to understand how this is a public‑private partnership. So, in the $43 million or so, about $25 million are new city tax levy funding in this current year and in some subsequent years for expanded and new initiatives. About another $3 million are self-funded, and so we've prioritized funding within agency budgets, again, for new and expanded initiatives on those four different areas that I mentioned; more than $1 million in private funding, and close to $14 million in federal grant funding.
And as the mayor mentioned, this is a clarion call. Under no illusion that 40 initiatives, $40 million, will reduce all of those gaps. But if we are to make a dent in that pay gap, in that statistic about the incidence of maternal mortality in Black women, we have to make a very strong down payment and have a comprehensive plan, and that's what this is.
And we'd also be more than happy on any of the individual 42 initiatives… And you can see that they take place in our schools, in our hospitals, in NYCHA development, so it's all of the places where we need to make these investments we are, and we'd be happy to follow up on specific programs if helpful.
Question: Who are the private dollars from? There's a few philanthropy organizations or…
Deputy Mayor Torres‑Springer: Yes. There are a few of them, some individual donors. There are funds associated with different agencies as well as a couple of corporate donors who are really supporting the work at NYCHA, supporting the financial empowerment work that the mayor mentioned with Troop 6000. And so that is fantastic, and we certainly invite more New Yorkers to support this work, because it's going to take everyone.
First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright: And Ana is here from the Women's Foundation. Right?
Deputy Mayor Torres‑Springer:
That's right. Thank you, Ana. Really the foundation for all of this work, so you've been really inspiring. Thank you.
Question:
Hi, [inaudible] initiatives do you have any specific goals to [inaudible] mortality by a certain percentage [inaudible].
Deputy Mayor Anne Williams-Isom, Health and Human Services: So, yes. If you remember our Healthy NYC program, there was a specific call out there in terms of maternal mortality, and so there's specific goals related to that.
If you remember our big health summit a couple of weeks… I guess months ago now, we did birth equity, we did sexual and reproductive rights, we did chronic diseases, we know how hypertension and diabetes affects women in particular. So, all of these particular areas are going to be looked at.
I'm excited about this plan because we're also including things about when we think about shelter exits from DHS, how do we focus on the biggest populations which are families with children and what's the goal that we're going to set for ourselves there.
We look at traditional populations, women coming out of incarceration. We very rarely talk about that. And I remember being at the Harlem Children's Zone and having children whose moms were incarcerated and what the statistics look like for little ones that have moms that are incarcerated and the support that they need.
So, I'm very excited that we're looking at many different… The lifecycle of a woman and all she needs, whether she wants to be a mother or not, right? There's many women who don't want to be moms. There's women who struggle with infertility.
And so all of that, including women who are challenged at different points in their lives, as all of us are, and how do we support women throughout that whole life cycle. So, I'm excited about that.
Question: How much money is going to the abortion access program, and how many medicated abortion kits have been sent so far?
Deputy Mayor Williams-Isom: I have to get… I don't have that number off hand, but we'll get that from [inaudible] Dr. Vasan will get that to you.
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